Hermione Granger and the Shoujo Protagonist Curse
by romanzu
Summary: After the war Hermione embarks on a trip that unexpectedly leads her back to Hogwarts. How does she handle school life again? Can she get back to her original search for knowledge to help magical creatures? Who is Thomas Redlid? Is everyone out to get her or is it just her imagination? Hermione/multiple, f/m, f/f, possibly m/m, harem, EWE
1. CH1: Strange and familiar surroundings

Disclaimers: Characters and places etc. belong to Rowling, the cover art picture was made using RinmaruGames' Mega Anime Avatar Creator.

* * *

So many people were dead, but the war had been won. After helping with rebuilding the wizarding world for a few months, Hermione had packed her things and decided to travel the world for a while. The prejudices against magical creatures old British wizard families held were deep and difficult to disperse, and thus she thought to see whether or not things were the same everywhere in the world.

She had first taken a portkey to Australia, after telling the boys that she needed to search for her family. She had known it was a futile attempt, but Harry and Ron did not know any better. In Australia she had found that the local witches and wizards were actually quite respectful towards magical creatures of the area, possibly because of having to ban experimenting on them when the monster populations had grown so huge that they had begun waging wars against each other. The resulting massacre had left the wizard population on the continent scarce, but strong, as they had to continue searching the leftover abominations and get rid of them so that the muggles would not find them nor they the muggles.

After spending a couple of weeks in Australia's only wizard university, Wonderland University, located near Alice Springs, Hermione left for Japan. The wizarding community in Tokyo was under the city and she was grateful for the advanced air conditioning compared to the heat of the WU as she didn't have to keep casting cooling charms all the time. After getting out of the portkey landing area, she soon found herself in a small cafe, trying to make sense of the colourful portion in front of her and drinking Sencha. Through the window she saw the hectic streets and the certainly more liberal styles of clothing than the British wizards wore. Anything from kimonos to glowing mist bikinis seemed to be normal around here, but Hermione's comfortable muggle jeans went unnoticed in the crowd aswell.

When half of her tea was gone, a little girl with possibly her mother stepped in to the cafe and the girl's eyes met Hermione's. She gasped with excitement and pointed at Hermione and squealed something to her guardian. The woman said something to the girl and went to the counter as the girl approached Hermione. Hermione tried to look as if she was concentrating on her cup and not dreading the girl.

The girl sat bravely in front of Hermione and whipped out a book and placed it in front of Hermione almost spilling her food. Hermione looked up at the girl and the girl told her something she could not understand and pointed at the open book enthusiastically. On the page there was a few pictures drawn in a strange comic style. The one picture the girl was so sternly pointing at depicted a curly haired girl looking at a smiling boy and there were speech bubbles filled with Japanese text. Hermione looked at the girl questioningly and pointed at herself. "You think I look like that?"

The girl pulled away a bit at the foreign language, but recovered fast and pointed repeatedly at the picture and back to Hermione. Hermione leaned over the book to look at it closer. It must have been a so called manga book. She looked at the girl and rose an eyebrow while inching her hand towards the book and the girl nodded. Hermione touched the book to turn a page and felt a sharp sensation melt quickly through her fingers over her body.

Everything blurred and slowed down. The last thing Hermione thought before time completely stopped was that she should have known better than to just touch something a magical person had held without checking whether or not it is cursed.

-x-x-x-

Hermione groaned as she started getting her consciousness back. She heard chattering all around her and something warm was under her chin. The chattering was in English, and not even with an Australian accent. And the closest voices sounded familiar...

"Next time you're doing your keeper's duty, you'd better be on time! Even if I'm good, I can't keep the goals guarded all the time while trying to score myself."

"Oh, shut it..."

"I wonder what Lav-Lav would do if her Won-Won was kicked out of the team?"

"That's a bit harsh, Ginny. It was just this once and it was just the first practice session of the year."

"Well, it's my responsibility now that I'm the captain, Harry... Oh. Morning, Hermione."

Hermione lifted her head and scrubbed her eyes and mumbled her morning greeting back at her friend. She found something sticky on her hand when she put it down. Ginny chuckled at her.

"You have some porridge on your face."

"Oh, great..." Hermione waved her wand and the ruined porridge vanished from her plate, face, and hand. Was this a dream? Would she next find herself naked in the middle of the Great Hall? She had not had that kind of dreams, but she had heard lots of people having them. Nevertheless, she was at the Great Hall right now, and her friends around her looked much less world weary than she remembered them, as did the place itself. There also were several people present that should have been dead. Professor Dumbledore among them. "What year is it?"

"Are you okay? I don't think I have seen you that out of it before," Ginny asked and felt Hermione's forehead. "Is it stress?"

"You sound like mom. She looks okay to me!" Ron said. "Come to think about it, she looks more than okay."

Ron looked at Hermione up and down with a strange glint in his eyes. Hermione felt her cheeks grow warm and coughed, hiding her face behind her bush of hair. Now that she warily looked around her, Ron was not the only one in the student filled place looking at her in a peculiar manner.

Before Hermione had pushed her hair out of her face, owls started swooping down and dropping mail to the tables. An owl with a copy of the Daily Prophet landed unhygienically on her empty plate, but Hermione just dug her pockets to find a couple of knuts to give the owl for the paper. She started skimming quickly through the Prophet. Her friends around her continued their chattering.

It was the 2nd of September 1997. She found no articles mentioning anything about the Dark Lord or Harry. However, there was an article with a picture of Moody and Tonks standing in front of tied up Death Eaters saying that Bellatrix Lestrange among others had been caught and put back to Azkaban. Hermione had to read the article thrice she had not just imagined what she read.

"Um, Harry..." Hermione interrupted the trio's quidditch talk. "Care to explain this?"

Harry rose up from his seat and leaned over Hermione's shoulder to read the article. Hermione stiffened as Harry's warm breath moved her hair and tickled her ear. Her cheeks threatened to get warmer again, but she did not dare to move. When harry changed his position, she leaned away from him. What was wrong with the boy? He usually kept his distance.

"I don't know," Harry said. "But... As I said promised yesterday before you and Ron had to go to your prefect and head girl things, I have something to tell you. But not here. Tonight in the common room?"

"Alright..." Hermione frowned. For a dream this seemed all too detailed, but things were certainly not like she remembered, even if she had been thrown back in time. Dumbledore should be dead by now. The ministry should be in chaos and Hogwarts supposedly as well. But when she looked at the head table, Dumbledore was sitting in his usual Headmaster spot, Professor Burbage was alive and well chatting with a man she did not recognise. When Hermione's gaze fell upon the man, she thought she saw the man glance back at her, but she was not sure if she had just imagined it.

A nudge on her shoulder turned out to be Professor McGonagall handing out timetables and Hermione easily fell into the school routine, despite having been out of it for closer to two years than one.

-x-x-x-

The Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom was filling up. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had learned to be distrustful of each new DADA teacher and had sat down at the back of the class. Harry and Ron continued their quidditch talk while Hermione rummaged through her bag to see if she had a text book for the class there. In addition to the text book she found something recently familiar and out of place in the current environment. It was the manga that she had touched right before she had found herself at the breakfast table.

The boys did not pay attention while she examined the book, like usually. They were used to her reading whatever and they were more interested in that stupid game anyway. She carefully turned the book around and went through it page by page... and nothing happened. She could not even find anything special about it with her diagnostic spells. She also could not grasp the story, as she could not understand the language nor the letters. It almost made her huff and puff in frustration.

When she finally sighed and was just about to close the book, a hand appeared on top of it.

"No reading frivolous fairytales in class, Miss...?" It was the man who had talked with Professor Burbage. His grey eyes were rather sharp up close. So, this was the new DA teacher.

"Granger, sir," Hermione answered and the man took her manga and walked to the front of the class. Hermione glared at his back.

"Good morning, students. I'm professor Redlid. Let me start by taking attendance, as I don't know you."

All the while the Professor went through the list and made each student rise for him one by one, Harry kept making suspicious glances towards him. When he had gone through the students, he told them to read the first two chapters of the text book. Hermione had read the book thrice when she had been preparing for hunting horcruxes with the boys, so she knew the book from cover to cover. She noticed the Professor smirking reading the "frivolous fairytale" behind his desk at the front. That made Hermione's frustration grow. She needed to get that manga back, this far it was the only clue to how she had ended up here.

As the minutes ticked on, Hermione started considering her situation. This could be another dimension or another timeline, or both. However, this far she had not found many things that did not match her previous experience. But, then again, memories can be fallacious. If here was the real world, the timeline must have begun being different at latest at the point where Dumbledore died. But where there other differences..? Hermione buried her head in her hands. If this was not real, this could still be some sort of magical dream dimension, and she had no way to tell whether or not that was the case. With magic so many things that were not real for muggles were actually real and... Her thoughts were going in circles. This was why she had not touched many books on magical philosophy. It often reminded her too much of irrational religious beliefs.

After having fun with the manga for a while, Professor Redlid started quizzing the students about the content of the text book they had read. Despite Hermione's raised hand after every question, he never asked her a thing, just like certain other Professor. When the lesson was over, Hermione told Harry and Ron to go before her as she had something to talk about with the Professor and when she and he were the only ones left, she approached him. He had sat back to his chair and was continuing reading the comic.

"Professor Redlid, may I have my book back?" Hermione asked, keeping her tone polite.

"Oh, I was hoping I could borrow it. It's rather interesting that a girl your age likes to read this sort of things," the professor told her coolly with a hint of smile.

"Please." Hermione paused. "It... was a gift."

"Where did you learn Japanese, Miss Granger?" the Professor inquired. "I did not notice you using any translation spells when you read this."

"I don't understand Japanese, sir," she admitted. "As I said, it was a gift. I meant to learn a translation spell for it later."

"I could teach you."

"Pardon?" The teacher's eyes were tracing her face curiously switching from her mouth and back to her eyes. It was as if everything else suddenly had disappeared from existence, she could not look away. Hermione wondered was it normal for this teacher with such regular features to offer extra lessons right away to every student.

"I could teach you. Either Japanese, or the spell, whichever you like..." he glanced at the manga, releasing Hermione who quickly followed suit. "In exchange for you lending me this book."

"Why do you want to borrow it?" Hermione asked and assessed the man. He looked quite young for a professor. His dark hair had no hint of grey on it and it had not begun to draw back. He only had slight wrinkles on his pale skin around those steel grey eyes. No professor had ever before wanted to borrow any of her books. "Sir?"

"The story is amusing," he told her lightly. "You'd like to learn, I take it? Which is it?"

"I'll have to think about it, but now..."

"Alright," he interrupted her before she could ask the book back again. "I'll teach you when I give this back to you, hm?"

Hermione glared at the smiling Professor Redlid and sighed. She could not really do anything if a professor confiscated any of her belongings, whether or not he called it borrowing, and she did not want to miss her chances of getting the manga back peacefully.

"Understood, Professor. When may I get it back?"

"See me here tomorrow morning before class."

Hermione nodded and turned around to go.

"One more thing, Miss Granger," the Professor called out. "Watch out for your friend, Mr. Potter. He might be up to something stupid."

Hermione shrugged and continued her stride. Harry was always up to something stupid, she did not need anyone to tell her to watch over him.

-x-x-x-

Harry and Ron were having lunch at the Great Hall the next time Hermione saw them. She sat next to Ron and piled her plate full of healthy vegetables and meat.

"Did you get that book of yours back?" Harry asked Hermione and even Ron looked curious.

"No. He wanted to borrow it," Hermione answered and her shoulders slumped.

"Why? I don't like him."

"I don't know, Harry. He said he found it amusing." Hermione shook her head. "...Why don't you like him?"

"I dunno, he just somehow makes my skin crawl." Harry shuddered. "And what kind of name is Redlid anyway? Sounds like Riddle to me, and you know who that is."

"Maybe he's you-know-who in disguise!" Ron budded in. "Wasn't his first name Tom too?"

"I think it was Thomas?" Harry looked at Hermione.

"Right, that sounds exactly like him! Didn't you tell us he just scrambled his name to make his Dark Lord name?" Ron sputtered.

"That's right, but would he be so stupid to come here under Dumbledore's nose with that sort of easily discovered name?"

"Maybe he thinks we wouldn't figure it out, or maybe he tries to fool us with such a ridiculous disguise!"

"Or maybe he just happens to have a somewhat similar name. What do you think, Hermione?"

"I don't know. But even if he was him, why would he want to read something like that book? It's obviously just a childish comic." Hermione started putting food in her mouth and hoped the boys would left it at that.

"I didn't know you read childish comics," Ron noted.

"I didn't know you cared about what I read, Ronald."

The boy frowned without saying anything and looked Hermione over again.

"What?" she asked.

"I want to start learning more about what you like to read," he said, smiling at her with a direct stare at her eyes.

Hermione looked away and the boys picked up their previous quidditch conversation. She did not know what to think about Ron right now. She had had feelings for him, strong ones, but... That had been ages away. Maybe even on completely different timeline. Her heart had not thrummed in her chest like it used to when he looked at her like that. His eyes were still quite pretty, despite him being so... young.

-x-x-x-

After lunch Hermione had Herbology with Neville, who shone in class. She was happy that in this world Neville had also found his confidence. In class she was also happy to get her hands dirty plucking weeds and her mind elsewhere for a while. It had been an exhausting day this far keeping up and trying to find out what had happened and when. Professor Sprout was in good health, as she was supposed to be and everyone in class were the ones she remembered from her sixth year. Even Malfoy was there. She wondered whether or not he had tried to kill Dumbledore and what had happened if it was so.

After washing her hands, Hermione was just about to head to the library when the blonde Slytherin blocked her way with his ever present companions.

"Why did you keep staring me in class, Granger? Having a crush?" Malfoy sneered and Crabbe and Goyle laughed obediently.

"You wish. Out of my way!" Hermione said evenly and was ready for battle. The boys did not have their wands out, however, so neither did she take hers out yet. Malfoy took a step forward and the things she had learned in self-defence classes and in the war popped in her mind.

"Stop bothering her, Malfoy!"

The four of them turned to look at Neville with surprise. The boy was holding a small potful of what looked like Venomous Tentacula. As all of them knew how deadly the plant could be, they stepped back from Neville. Head held high Malfoy tsked and motioned his goons to lead the way out. Neville stood next to Hermione watching the Slytherins disappear behind a corner.

"What was that about?" he asked her and put the plant on a shelf.

"I wonder that myself. But maybe it was just Malfoy being Malfoy." Hermione shrugged.

"I was just thinking about going to the library, wanna come with?" Neville surprised Hermione again. Since Hermione was going there anyway, she agreed.

On their way there they discussed the properties of Chamalla in contrast to Dittany and when they got there, Neville found some Herbology books he had not yet read and Hermione went on a search for books about interdimensional travel. After a couple of hours she had found three books that seemed like they might be related to the topic, but it was time for dinner, so she just went to check them out and Neville accompanied her to the Great Hall.

After dinner Hermione washed herself, noting that she did not have 'mudblood' carved on her hand anymore, but she still had the scar Dolohov had given her at the Department of Mysteries. Her body seemed to be younger than it had been before she found her face in porridge. That made sense with the switching to a different timeline theory. She still had all the markings she had had before the war had properly begun.

When the night fell, it found Hermione curled up in the common room, getting more irritated by the bookful of rubbish she had managed to pick up at the library while she waited for Harry and Ron to appear for Harry to tell them what he had not wanted to when others were around.

* * *

Thanks for reading this far. I'm looking for betas, by the way. PM me if you're interested. Next chapter coming up next week.


	2. CH2: Nasty Professors

The previous disclaimers apply to this and all the other chapters to come.

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"You just dealt with all the horcruxes with Dumbledore last summer?"

"Horcruxes?" Harry looked puzzled. He had just described how Dumbledore had appeared to his doorstep and how they had found and destroyed all the horcruxes Hermione remembered, except Harry himself. They had even tricked Voldemort to leave his snake without supervision for a moment and killed it with Godric Gryffindor's sword. After that the Dark Lord had disappeared and the Death Eaters had been more or less disbanded. That did actually explain how those Death Eaters were caught and sent to Azkaban so easily, but as usually, Harry had not made the connection. Also, from what Harry told about the ring, it sounded like Dumbledore had not tried to destroy it before and they had did it together around the time Dumbledore was supposed to die according to Hermione's memory.

"Never mind... So, is Voldemort still lurking around somewhere or did you destroy him too?" Hermione asked.

"Dumbledore said he would be destroyed if the things we slashed with the Gryffindor's sword were destroyed."

"But he didn't say that Voldemort is gone?"

Harry shuffled his feet and looked away. The Harry Hermione remembered had learned to not trust Dumbledore without questioning him, but this Harry was younger and had spent more time in his presence. Hermione felt even older than she used to in the company of her friends. She sighed.

"I knew it! He's that Redlid!" Ron exclaimed right at the moment Hermione had opened her mouth to speak again. She decided to ignore the notion for the time being.

"Harry. How are your occlumency lessons?" If Harry was actually capable to occlude properly in this timeline, he might not be as susceptible to Voldemort's manipulation if the Dark Lord was somewhere to be found.

"Dumbledore said I'm good enough after giving me a few more of them in summer." Harry did not exhibit any tell-tale signs of lying or hiding things.

Ron provoked Harry into another debate about whether or not their new DADA teacher was the Dark Lord himself and Hermione tuned them out. Things sure were different from what she remembered. What if this was actually the real reality and she had imagined the whole war and everything? In the end she decided that for now that sort of thinking lead to the whole wizarding world probably being her imagination and said good night to the boys before retreating to the head girl's chambers on the top of the Gryffindor Tower. At least that was how it should have been, she thought.

It had been a long day and she fell asleep right after she had gone to bed.

-x-x-x-

Hermione was not sure whether or not to trust that the suspicious professor would return her manga the next morning, despite having strongly hinted at it. But she did not have a choice in any case. The man was her Professor and held power over her, and she needed to play along in case this was the real world. She knocked on the door of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom before most of the castle was even waking up. The Professor had not said an exact time. She wanted to get the book back as soon as possible.

There was no answer and after yawning for a while, Hermione just opened the door and went in. The room was dark and quiet. The windows showing the still dim dawn were framed by heavy curtains. Someone had to have pulled them back or just left them there. Hermione was slightly alarmed and walked toward the nearest window. Her footsteps echoed softly in the room and the heavy door clicked closed. She glanced back at it, but it must have closed because of her pushing it back. The curtains smelled like garlic and the view was rather calming.

Hermione hopped on the windowsill and took out her journal, where she, or the version of her in this reality, had written about her Head Girl duties. To her surprise she found out that Malfoy had been made the Head Boy. Maybe this meant he had come to some sort of agreement with Dumbledore instead of trying to kill him? She started to wonder whether or not she should try to approach Dumbledore with her questions or ask Harry to ask him. The old wizard had always made her a bit awkward around him, as he reminded her of all the old powerful mentor wizards of the stories she had read.

Her musings were interrupted by Professor Redlid entering the room through a door close to the front. He did not seem to notice Hermione as he rubbed his eyes tiredly and went to his desk. In the morning light Hermione did get the impression that there was something snakelike about the man, but she could not put her finger on it. Who knows, maybe he was actually Voldemort in disguise. It was not as if Hermione dared to rule out things like that in this world. The man waved his hand in a graceful motion and some paper flew from a cabinet and landed on the desk. After that he lifted his head sharply without turning.

Hermione started putting out her things and jumped down to get closer to the Professor. He turned so slowly towards Hermione that his green robe barely moved around him at all. The man stood motionlessly.

"Good morning, professor. I'm here about my book," Hermione announced as she reached the front of the classroom. She purposefully avoided looking at his eyes for more than a couple of seconds at a time. If he happened to be Voldemort, he would be a highly skilled legilimens as well.

The Professor stared the student for a long moment before smiling.

"Ah, Miss Granger. Have you decided whether you want to learn the language or the spell?" he asked. His voice was soft, but a little bit raspy, of sleep, perhaps.

"I can learn them both by myself, but thank you for the offer, sir. I just want my book back." Hermione crossed her arms.

"Well, I'm not finished with it, and I don't even have it with me right now," Professor Redlid told her and spread his hands as if to show her how he did not have the manga with him. Then his smile shifted a bit and his eyes darkened. "I was hoping I could pay you back in advance now."

"When will you be finished with it? It's very important to me." Hermione did not like how the professor's lips curled even more at that and how he tilted his head to look her as if she was some sort of exotic curiosity.

"I don't know..." he mused.

"In that case, I'd better go," Hermione declared and turned to leave.

"Wait, Miss Granger," the Professor exclaimed before Hermione could take another step. "I need to arrange some dark creatures here for the first years to study, and as you're the Head Girl, I need you to help me go through the process, the papers, access to the wards..."

Hermione sighed and turned back to the professor. She was indeed responsible of helping the teachers with their lesson arrangements whenever they asked for help. She spent the rest of the morning fetching documents from the teachers' lounge and explaining the Professor the rules of how they had to be handled in Hogwarts, while he just smiled and nodded at her infuriatingly. She ended up not even having time to get breakfast before having to go to class. Even if the man was not Voldemort, he obviously was evil.

-x-x-x-

At lunch time Hermione was already too hungry to care much about anything besides getting rid of the painful sensation in her stomach. Ginny blabbed on about quidditch tactics to the team sitting next to them at the table and Hermione threw some annoyed glances at the teachers' table while she ate. It had been ages since she had been as hungry as she was now. When she was traveling with the boys, she had not always gotten enough to eat, and her appetite had adjusted with it, but now she was in a younger body again and was not used to being hungry anymore, even mentally.

Neville had sat opposite to her and was now just watching her eat. He looked healthy. He even had gotten a tan, no doubt because of spending lots of time in greenhouses. He had told her he even had gotten one at home as a gift from her grandmother after getting a high score in his Herbology OWL. He had also gotten way more knowledgeable about magical plants than even Hermione herself was after he had decided to pursue a career in Herbology. He had always been good at it, but Hermione used to be able to easily keep up with him with the subject.

"Why do you keep looking at the Professors?" Neville asked her, leaning his head on one hand. "We haven't had potions yet, so I'm guessing it's not Snape, but I can't think why you'd be angry with anyone else."

Hermione shrugged. She was already feeling better after getting something to eat. Talking about Snape, they would have potions next. How the people talked about him had not seemed like he had not taken over the DADA position last year, but nobody seemed to know why he stepped down this year. It was strange to think that the man died as a hero and now was alive again. Hermione had even cried for him... among other casualties. Hermione's eyes found the one located closest to her at the moment, Lavender Brown. She had cried for her also. The girl was clinging to Ron's side, but Hermione found herself devoid of the bang of jealousy she used to feel seeing that.

"Neville, have you ever felt like you had too many thoughts running through your head at the same time?" Hermione asked and sighed. This was not her life, or was it? Why could that annoying Professor not give her manga back so she would have at least some clue?

"Maybe." Neville averted his eyes and his cheeks got pinker. "How do you mean?"

"Like... I don't know... As if everything had lost its base? Perhaps? Or there were just too many things to consider? I don't know..." Hermione shook her head before drinking the last gulps of pumpkin juice she had left.

"Don't you usually know everything?" Neville teased. "Well... When my thoughts get muddled I usually go for walks or work on a garden. Could that help?"

"Hmm. It might be worth a try. Thanks." Hermione smiled at the boy. The red tint on his cheeks had done the opposite of disappearing and he still did not look straight back at her. The colour reminded Hermione of tomatoes and she started pondering whether or not there were magical tomatoes and asked him. Apparently there were magical relatives of tomatoes and they were very rare and had various qualities Hermione had not even thought of.

-x-x-x-

It did not sound very plausible to Hermione that Snape had just accepted Harry and Ron in his class, so there must have been some Dumbledore meddling to make it possible. From what Hermione had heard in her one and half a day of stay in Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn had vanished without giving anyone an explanation as to why.

Today they were brewing blood replenishing potion, which Hermione knew by heart how to do by now. Despite that she did not let her mind wander and got in a good flow after getting the ingredients beside the cauldron. At a steady rate she prepared them and set the fire under the cauldron to the right temperature. This seemed to help her as much as what Neville had told her, but she did not dwell on the thought about the boy and concentrated on the potion instead.

When she had just stirred the cauldron for the last time and only needed to wait for it to simmer, she felt something touch her left wrist from behind. Hermione reflexively spun into action; she pulled her wand out and turned around simultaneously and cast a nonverbal binding charm at her attacker. Hermione's heart bounded loudly as she checked her surroundings. She was in the Potions classroom, surrounded by other students, who looked at her with surprise when bound Draco Malfoy fell down in front of her with a loud thud.

As her heart slowly got quieter, her cheeks grew warm. She looked at the boy she had felled. He did not even have his wand out, he must have just walked too close to her. There was enough space to walk farther away, though, and she did not see a reason for him to get that close... Maybe he had had something to say. In any case, she released him from the charm.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor and detention after class, Miss Granger," Professor Snape's smooth voice drawled as the man himself walked towards Hermione. She cringed. "Well? Stop staring and continue your potions!"

The students shuffled to do as the Professor said and Hermione caught a worried look from Harry, before he turned back to his cauldron. Professor Snape reached Hermione and Malfoy, who was starting to gather himself up from the floor.

"I'm sorry," mortified Hermione finally got out of her mouth, quietly. Suddenly she remembered her potion and turned to finish it, as now it must have simmered enough.

"Mr. Malfoy, are you uninjured?" Professor Snape sounded worried, unlike with students usually. Maybe it was because of that student being in Slytherin. Or maybe it was just for Malfoy. Harry had told her in her original timeline that Professor Snape had taken an unbreakable vow to protect the boy.

"Yes, yes..." Malfoy mumbled. It sounded like he had gotten up. It had just been a binding spell, and the binds should have protected his fall.

"Good," Snape said. There was that small, familiar, swooshing sound that left from his robes when he turned dramatically. Hermione started pouring her perfect potion to vials.

Nobody was talking in class. There were quiet pops as some of the cauldrons were boiling and some scratching sounds of quills on parchments and crackling of the fires under the cauldrons. It smelled steely all around with a hint of mint. Hermione's work was done.

"Granger?" whispered Malfoy. He had not left from behind her.

"Didn't I already tell you I'm sorry?" Hermione asked him, turning around, vials in her hands. Malfoy flinched.

"No... Yes.. I mean, I just wanted to ask when you're free so that we could discuss Head student activities," he continued and shuffled his feet.

Hermione took a long look at the boy. His face pointed towards her feet, but he looked at her from under his brows. The puppy-dog look was only ruined by the greyness of his eyes. Puppies' eyes were supposed to be brown, this way that pleading look seemed somehow much less innocent.

"Tomorrow at breakfast, or after school, I suppose?" Hermione suggested to get it over with.

"At breakfast, if we could meet in the kitchens?" Malfoy answered.

"That's fine. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Hermione walked past the blond boy to give her finished potion out for assessment. She was the first to finish her potion, as usually, and the first to return it, but this time she could not just prepare for leaving, because of her detention. Head girl was not supposed to get detention, she was sure of it, but she did not remember reading about them getting replaced after such occurrences here in Hogwarts. But, who knows...

Hermione took out her copy of the Hogwarts: A History. She had always carried it around in case of emergencies like this. She placed it on the desk in front of her and started to read as the other students started getting ready to leave one after another. The magnificent tone harboured so many of the secrets of the magic school that she had been entranced from the first page the first time she had opened the book before she got to Hogwarts. These days it evoked nostalgic and warm feelings while gathering most of her attention so that she did not worry about anything.

There was peace in reading this familiar book. She could find the calmness in these familiar procedures. Sentence after sentence, page after page, picture after picture... Ingredient after ingredient. She just needed to do something she was used to doing and her mind was tranquil. No disturbing mess.

When the classroom started to be quiet again, Hermione lifted her eyes from the book. Harry and Ron were stubbornly just standing there, even though the other students had already left. They were taking turns glaring at Snape and looking at Hermione worriedly. Hermione smiled at them and made shooing motions with her hand and finally they left. She put her book back and went to stand by Professor Snape's desk, where the man was sitting. Hermione was almost happy that she would no doubt end up having to use his hands to scrub cauldrons or something similar, which let her mind get in a calm flow state again.

"Follow me," Professor Snape just told her and rose to walk to the back of the classroom. Hermione followed him through a heavy oaken door and she felt tingles as the wards let her through. The door shut behind her and she turned to look back at it before noticing the Professor already sitting behind a desk, similar in style as the door, and looking expectantly at a cushioned chair in front of the desk. She would have expected a much more uncomfortable chair, but the room was all around more ascetic than the desk and both of the chairs. His was, of course, much more luxurious looking. It was covered in black leather. She went and sat down in the more humble one. There were no cauldrons in the room.

"Are you really Hermione Granger?" Professor Snape suddenly asked.

* * *

What have you thought about this story this far? Still looking for betas. Next chapter coming up at the end of this week or at the beginning of next.


	3. CH3: Detention

Professor Snape's intense stare was burning in Hermione's retina. She was alone with him in his private office. She could hear the pounding of her blood in her ears. An edge of the chair she was sitting on was digging into her thighs. Candles on the walls made the room smell like burned indistinguishable herbs and made the shadows on the Professor's face dance. She did not know what to answer and did not dare to look away from his eyes despite the knowledge of the chance of him using legilimency. Her own private occlumency exercises had not prepared her for real confrontation, so she had no idea whether or not her walls worked. At least she did not feel anything through them at the moment.

"Yes..?" she finally said with furrowed eyebrows. She did not see any reason for him to think she was not Hermione.

"Is that so?" Professor Snape said and stood up. He walked a few paces away from the desk, turned back and crossed his arms in front of him. "Miss Granger... I fought in a war. I know how fighters react when faced with threatening situations, even outside combat. You reacted exactly like that in my class a few moments ago, and I know for a fact that Hermione Granger has not fought in any wars, or otherwise been in combat situations enough for it to seem like it. Moreover, you don't act like you did before summer. You look around as if everything is not as it is supposed to be and... You don't react to me the way you used to."

Hermione knew she had let her fighter's instincts run loose and that she could not deny having fought in a war. She had not thought she had been acting any differently, but it was true that many of the intact pieces of the castle these days were those that she helped to fix or at least had seen having been fixed, and most of them looked a bit different than they had been. Now they were as they had been before all the destruction. But how could the Professor have noticed..? And what did he mean by reacting and acting differently? He might mean something else entirely.

"Well?" the Professor urged and had he been any other person, Hermione would have expected him to tap his foot to the floor.

"I don't know what you're expecting me to say, sir." Maybe she could try playing it safe. There was no way for him to know that he actually was on to something.

"You don't deny my observations? So you aren't Hermione Granger after all. What-"

"I am!" Hermione interrupted. She stood and lifted her hands on the desk to lean towards her interrogator. "I most definitely am Hermione Jean Granger. If you need some kind of proof of that, name it. Sir."

"Start from explaining why you attacked Mr. Malfoy." Professor Snape stepped forwards towards his chair and Hermione sat back at hers. "I might just go to Dumbledore and suggest your expulsion for doing that."

"It's as you said, I must have fought in a war." She glared at him. "But I am still me."

"Oh, really?" Snape sat back.

"You wouldn't believe it even if I told you..." Hermione hesitated.

Professor Snape stared at her and lifted an eyebrow. "I guess I'll just have to conclude that you've lost your senses and are too much of a danger to other students."

"Professor, please. You know my relationship with Malfoy is not exactly nice, it doesn't mean I'm particularly dangerous!" Hermione pleaded. If she lost the access to Hogwarts library and she lost her chances of getting her manga back, it would be a huge set back and she did not want to cross this timeline's Dumbledore's path. He was a very powerful wizard, but in her timeline he had made some major mistakes, and had not fixed all the things she would. He had been willing to sacrifice Harry and pretended to care about him from year one. She respected the old wizard, but unlike Harry, she did not trust him.

"I beg to differ. You're a killer, Miss Granger, anyone who has seen what I've seen would agree," Snape countered and got up again. "You can come with me peacefully..."

"I know about Lily," Hermione blurted, desperately, and felt a cold wave pass through her mind as she continued. "I know how you became loyal to the Order and betrayed Voldemort."

She felt sweat prickle on her forehead and the dark robed figure in front of her had stilled. He was frowning and he closed his eyes, as if he was trying to keep himself of attacking her on the spot. He could have just attacked her, he had just said that he considered her dangerous, but apparently not that dangerous. Hermione hoped what she had said was enough for him to reconsider outing her to Dumbledore or other teachers. Dumbledore should know those things already, unless this timeline was different in that regard, but maybe he would not want the other teachers to know and she could tell them. Professor Snape sat down.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said and looked into her eyes again.

"Professor, just that reaction just now was quite telling," Hermione jibed. The face Professor Snape made at that was quite sour. "Can I just serve my detention and go, sir?"

"After what you just said? Miss Granger, don't be ridiculous." Professor Snape sighed before continuing. "You imply you know too much. Is there a reason why I shouldn't obliviate you now?"

"I mean no harm," Hermione began and Snape's eyebrows rose. "Well, I wouldn't just let you do that, and you did say I'm a killer. Maybe you wouldn't like to put that to a test?"

At that Snape moved his hand faster than even Hermione's battle hardened reflexes had enough time to react to and Hermione found herself stuck in the chair unable to move. She felt her mouth had been gagged with something thick and her torso, hands, and legs were snuggly tied with lianas. Hermione glared at the man, but forced herself to not retaliate by nonverbally setting the Professor's robes on fire a bit like she had done in her first year.

"I don't think you could stop me," he said and slowly walked from behind the desk to behind Hermione. Her eyes followed him until she would have had to turn her head to see him. She refused to go that far. She knew she was very much in trouble now, but she would be in even more trouble if she started fighting the man. He had much more experience and even if she managed to win, she would no doubt suffer great damage.

Hermione felt warm hands on her shoulders and the gag disappeared. She breathed deep to calm herself under the touch. He would not want to kill her. He would not want to obliviate her... at least not yet, but why? Hermione would have smacked her forehead at that moment had she not been tied up. Of course!

"You need to know who else knows your secret," Hermione articulated sure of herself. The hands left her shoulders.

"Indeed," he whispered leaving the room quiet. She could hear her own breathing as she went through what she would be willing to tell Snape and what not. "Start talking."

"I am the only one who knows," Hermione finally said. She counted on Snape not quite believing her.

"Elaborate." He appeared in her field of vision again.

"Harry testified for you so that you would at least be buried respectfully, unlike other fallen Death Eaters. I helped him prepare his testimony, he told me about the memories you had given him just before you died."

"Yet, here I stand. Are you claiming you're a prophet or a time traveler?"

"I... Well... It's year 1997 now, isn't it?" Hermione sighed after getting a nod from the pale man staring at her intently. "I have lived through this and most of the next year once already, but things were different. There was a war."

"Against the Dark Lord?" Snape prodded. In this timeline it seemed like the war had been avoided, but it was possible that it still was lurking around the corner if Voldemort still lived.

"Yes. But as I said, things were different. They were already different yesterday morning when I found myself here, and it seems that they have been different for a while before that. You know the laws of time travel, I am not supposed to tell what happened in my timeline."

"Miss Granger..." Snape sighed. "Do you really think those laws apply in this case? You already expressed how things have been going differently well before you... were added to this timeline. Besides, if this is proper time travel, where is the right Miss Granger of this timeline?"

"Oh. Yes..." Hermione felt the blood draw away from her face, but she quickly continued. "I... I don't think there's another Hermione here. This body is younger than it was before waking up here and it doesn't have all the scars... But there could have been the mind of this timeline's Hermione and it could have been destroyed or it, oh Merlin, it could have switched places with me and..."

"There's no need to panic, Miss Granger." Snape's voice was deliberately even and Hermione shut up. He gave her a worried look over. "Will you attack me if I let you loose?"

"No, Professor," Hermione answered despite her nervously thumping heart and her constraints disappeared. What if the Hermione of this timeline was in trouble and in her timeline? What if she had destroyed this Hermione and there was no way back?

"Winky!" the Professor called as Hermione rubbed her arms and wrists and moved her legs.

The house elf appeared next to the desk and bowed low. Her eyes were clear; she looked clean and sober. Hermione had no idea what had happened to Winky during the war, but in her timeline she most likely would not be as presentable as she was now. Professor Snape politely asked Winky to bring them tea and in a few seconds there was a teapot on a tray with two teacups and a few biscuits on the desk and Winky had been dismissed. Hermione's mind calmed down a bit. Maybe it was best if she focused on her current situation right now.

"Professor, may I ask you something?" Hermione asked.

"You just did, didn't you Miss Granger?" he drawled with a stony face. "But go ahead."

"How are you getting along with Winky?" Come to think about it, she had never before dared to consider asking such personal questions from Professor Snape. Even though she was gryffindor and all.

"Quite well," the professor evaded and poured both of them a cup of tea. "Take some tea."

"I mean, do you have some sort of special relationship with her, sir?" Hermione asked after doing as she had been told. The liquid looked like just regular tea and smelled like such as well.

"Miss Granger, she's a house elf and I am practically one of her masters here at Hogwarts. There's nothing more, nothing less." Snape sipped tea and the black eyes disappeared behind the teacup for a moment. "Why do you ask?"

"In my timeline she was quite the drunkard, but she looked fine just now." The tea was quite good despite tasting a bit like camomile. It was evening and the herb had a calming effect.

"I did give her anti-drunkard potions and Professor Dumbledore assigned her as my personal elf this year."

"I didn't know there was such a potion." She had not known that the professors got personal house elves either. For some reason it was not mentioned in Hogwarts: A History and nobody talked about it.

"It's new. Now, would you explain how did this war happen and how did you end up here?"

Hermione spent rest of the evening under Professor Snape's stare gathering up a rough summary of what had happened during the war. She even told him how they had destroyed the horcruxes without telling about them being horcruxes and she left out Harry having to die. She did not know whether the Professor had known about them or not, and as she told him about him helping them get the sword of Gryffindor, she answered to his incredulous look just that she did not know why he had done it.

When Hermione got to the part about how they had been rebuilding Hogwarts and how the Professor had been posthumously pardoned and what had happened to all the other Death Eaters, the man summoned Winky to get them dinner. She was as quick as she had been before, and Professor was as polite towards the elf. Hermione and Professor Snape ate in silence and drank more tea. Hermione started becoming worried about the pressure she felt in her nether regions, but she could not refuse the tea under his gaze. Despite this one being their third pot already. Maybe this was the actual suffering in detention part?

"Please, continue, Miss Granger. What happened next?" Professor Snape asked after finishing his sandwiches. He patted around his mouth with a napkin and sipped tea before continuing his previous inquisitive stare. Hermione took a deep breath and also sipped some more tea.

"Sir, do you know about my interest in the rights of magical beings in wizarding community?" she asked.

"I think I have heard about you trying to give clothes to Hogwarts' house elves," he said with a surprisingly humorous tone. That meant that this timeline's Hermione had been similar to her at least in that regard.

"Yes. I went on a search of information about how different magical communities around the world treated other magical beings. I started from Australia and continued to Japan, but from there I ended up here."

"How?"

"I sure would tell you exactly how if I could. There was a little Japanese girl that showed me a manga and when I touched it, the next thing I knew was me waking up in the Great Hall. I also discovered that the manga had appeared with me here, or it could have been here all along. However, Professor Redlid took it from me before I could investigate it very thoroughly."

"You speak Japanese, Miss Granger?"

"No, sir."

"Was the manga in English?"

"No, sir. It was in Japanese. I meant to learn the language or a translation spell, but I haven't yet had the time for that."

"I see." Professor Snape took out his wand and waved it. A book appeared on the table with a pop. "This should be of use to you. Return it when you've read it."

Hermione hurried to shove the book in her bag without even looking at it. The pressure was getting unbearable.

"Can I go now, sir?" she pleaded and fidgeted on her chair.

"What's the hurry? We still have things to discuss, Miss Granger..." Snape drawled and lifted an eyebrow. Hermione was at her wit's end.

"I really need to go to the loo, sir!" she blurted and couldn't help blushing as she did so.

"Oh, go ahead. I'll wait here," he muttered. Hermione could swear she saw a pink tinge on his cheeks.

Hermione bolted from the room and through the Potions classroom to the corridor. In her hurry she did not have much time looking at her surroundings, but she knew her way to the nearest toilet.

When she turned around a corner behind which the dungeon toilets were located she collided with something solid. She started falling, but were stopped just before she hit the floor by strong arms. The strong arms were attached to the torso of a Draco Malfoy, whose face was just inches away from hers. Her bag fell.

"Watch it... Granger?" the boy said and frowned before his eyes went wide. His eyes looked darker than usually in the dim lighting of the corridor.

Hermione tried to get her balance back, but Malfoy did not move to allow her any space without her getting even closer to him. Her heart beat wildly and when she noticed it was futile to try to properly get up, she tried to at least get her face farther away from the boy's. The boy did not seem to notice and his minty fresh breath tickled her cheek.

"Get your hands off me!" Hermione shouted indignantly and finally Malfoy seemed to get a hold of himself and helped her up before letting her go.

The pressure in her bladder was terrible, so she did not hesitate grabbing her bag and running straight to the loo and shutting the door loudly behind her as she went.

Finally sitting on the toilet seat, Hermione contemplated what had just happened. Professor Snape had actually been rather civil with her. He had not deducted any more points from her and he had not actually made her do any detention-like things, except not letting her go and tying her up... if that counts as detentionlike. He had actually seemed curious, and she had not sensed any malicious intent from him. And then... She had collided with Malfoy, who had actually grabbed her gallantly? What was up with that? Maybe that was how he usually reacted when colliding with people. She did not remember seeing him collide with anyone before. But it was curious that he had been alone. Oh, she probably should thank him the next time she saw him... when he did not have anyone else around him.

After washing hands and returning to the corridor to her relief, or disappointment, Malfoy had already left. She continued straight back through the classroom to Snape's office. The man was pacing back and forth when she saw him. The table was clean, which probably meant no more tea or anything. Hermione braced herself for punishment as the man stopped and looked at her.

"It's getting late. I think we'd better adjourn this discussion for another day," Snape told her.

"Oh, okay," Hermione answered belatedly. "Good night, sir."

She turned back and started towards the Gryffindor Tower before Professor Snape changed his mind but stopped at the doorway.

"Um, sir. Could you keep the things we discussed just between the two of us? I don't want to make this blow out of proportion," she asked without turning back.

"As long as you keep your own mouth shut as well. Good night, Miss Granger," he answered quietly.

Hermione shut the door behind her and started walking back to the Gryffindor tower. It had been a long evening and it was actually quite late already. It had been a long day in fact, and she felt it as a heaviness on her eyelids and limbs. She hoped she would not run into anyone anymore tonight. Her brain much needed sleep.

* * *

Will Hermione run into anyone tonight? Next chapter will be up in about a week.


	4. CH4: Boys

Sorry about posting this chapter this late. As an apology, I'll post the next one also as soon as I've done some minor edits to it.

* * *

The portrait of the Fat Lady closed quietly behind Hermione as she arrived at the common room. She almost fell over Crookshanks as the cat came to greet her. He meowed indignantly and she picked him up. Her dear Crookshanks had been waiting for her, she could not help smiling. She had really missed him and did not mind running into him.

"Hermione! Are you alright?" Ronald Weasley was running towards her and bumping into furniture. Hermione grimaced at a pile of books that fell from a table. Harry was perched on a couch with Ginny leaning on his shoulder. They had a big piece of parchment spread on a table in front of them and there was no-one else in the room. She was not happy to see them right now.

"Yes," Hermione answered and looked at the purring creature in her lap.

"Thank Merlin. I thought that greasy git was going to keep you there forever! And then even Malfoy showed up! What did he do to you?" Ron demanded and after stopping spread his hands as if to hug Hermione.

"Nothing?" Hermione stepped back and looked at the parchment on the table pointedly. "You've been spying on me?"

"You weren't at the Great Hall for dinner, so we got worried," Harry said quietly from the sofa. "And it's very late."

"It's awful he didn't even let you eat. We got Colin to get some snacks from the kitchen for you, but he's not back yet," Ginny said.

"Oh, you shouldn't have. Professor Snape did actually feed me..." Hermione noticed her friend's doubtful looks and chuckled. "It's true. Also, regarding Malfoy, I just ran into him on my way to the loo. Professor Snape made me drink too much tea."

Ginny snorted and looked away. Harry patted her back and a giggle escaped her and soon she was laughing out loud.

"I wish I could have seen his face!" Ginny managed to say. "Harry, I told you it's not likely that Malfoy would suddenly attack Hermione around the corner. Don't you remember how he helped her with those bullied first years last year?"

"But they were so close together for at least a minute..." Harry grumbled.

What, Hermione did not remember co-operating with Malfoy on any incident with any first years. What on earth had this timeline's Hermione been doing?

"I ran into him pretty hard. He just helped me up," she told them and did her best to keep her face straight. She remembered how close the boy had held her and his minty breath on her face... But now definitely was not the time to think about minty breaths and close encounters.

"I see," Ginny suddenly said with a sly look on her face. "Just helped, eh?"

"Yes," Hermione replied curtly. She noticed Ron had gotten a bit closer to her and his ears had gone red. His fists were clenched.

"What did Snape make you do in detention? Your positions were a bit odd on the map," Harry hurried to change the subject, and Hermione would have been thankful had the question not been as interrogative as the previous one. If she read the signs right, Ron was close to a temper tantrum and she had no idea in which direction he would slash.

"He... made me write lines," Hermione lied. She avoided Ginny's eyes; she would not buy it. It was strange how naturally she had told Professor Snape her story, and she was pretty sure he had not put anything in her tea. But she did not think she should explain herself to more people before she knew what was going on. It could have unexpected consequences and she was not much in control in her situation for the time being either.

"Just lines? He always made me wash the dirtiest cauldrons without using magic or something else as awful," Harry complained.

Hermione started moving towards the sofas, but at that moment the portrait opened to let in a student who was carrying so many sweets and pastries that they did not see his face.

He rushed in and his foot got caught on a corner of a mattress. The food flew around as he fell and he collided with Hermione's behind. Crookshanks had the sense to hop off her lap before she fell as well.

The cat hissed angrily at the boy, who slowly lifted his head up... From under Hermione's skirt. Hermione's knees and elbows had caught most of the impact with the floor, but her bum also hurt. Ron, Harry and Ginny rushed to her side. Hermione blushed and let Ronald help herself up before looking at the accidental sex offender. The collider was Colin.

"I'm sorry! Are you okay? I didn't mean to... I'm so sorry!" pink faced Colin babbled pathetically on his knees in front of Hermione. From that angle that close he probably would see her panties again if he just sifted his head a little bit. Hermione backed away.

"I've had enough for today," she huffed. "Good night, everyone!"

When she turned to leave, she did not miss the baffled look on Harry's face, Ginny's hands on her hips in a mollylike fashion as she looked at Colin, nor Ron's now completely red face. Crookshanks followed her to the stairs and up. Two collisions with two boys this evening. She did not remember colliding with people much before tonight. It was true she was rather tired.

-x-x-x-

Hermione had to catch her breath when she reached the painting of a bowl of fruit next morning. She leaned on the wall and sneezed before she lifted her hand to tickle the pear. However, before her finger touched the paint of the fruit, the painting flew over and a frowning Draco Malfoy appeared in the hole.

"You're late," he stated as a matter of factly.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said and pulled a paper napkin out of her pocket to blow her nose. Malfoy looked at the procedure with distain and Hermione apologized again after vanishing the napkin. Hermione had not been able to get sleep last night despite the purring feline calming her on her lap. Thoughts had been running circles in her head until she had decided to take a bath. Unfortunately she had fallen asleep in the bath, not after the bath, and woken up with her fingers and toes looking like raisins and shivering all over. The water had gone cold during the couple of hours that had been left of the night. She had also not set an alarm, but her clever cat had meowed her awake before she had completely frozen to death and missed the meeting with the boy.

"Come," Malfoy told her and pulled her through the portrait hole. She was flooded by the sight of dozens of house elves preparing meals for the students upstairs. Before she even had time to think about resisting, Malfoy had led her through the room with a hand on the small of her back and pulled a seat for her. At that point she hesitated, but the impatient look Malfoy gave her made her sit down. He sat down on the seat in front of them.

"Dobby?" Malfoy called, and the elf separated himself from the crowd and came next to their little table in the corner.

"Yes? Hello, Miss Hermy," Dobby said cheerily. He smiled at Hermione and she smiled back.

"Good morning, Dobby. How do you do?"

"Dobby is well, Miss. Is Miss also well?"

"Yes, I am," Hermione answered and wiped her nose with a new paper napkin. "How is Winky?"

"Winky is also well!" Dobby chirped. "I could go get her..."

"No, Dobby. We don't have time for this right now," Malfoy interrupted. "Could you get us a few sandwiches?"

"Coming, right away!" Dobby hurried away.

Hermione's smile disappeared when she looked back at the boy. It irked her how casually commanding he had sounded towards Dobby.

"Here, take this," Malfoy handed her something small and soft. "If you must blow your nose in public, at least use something proper."

In Hermione's hands was a fine white handkerchief with green DM embroidered on its corner.

"Malfoy..." Hermione started, closing her eyes with annoyance.

"Just keep it, okay? Please?" Malfoy pleaded. "I really can't handle watching you with those paper napkins, and we need to get to the topic before class. You know, we need to arrange that class trip somewhere and the Halloween party, and I suppose the plans for those need to be ready soon."

"Yes," Hermione sighed and dropped her animosity towards him, for now. They really needed to discuss the plans. He had been right in inviting her to talk with him this soon after the school year began.

The pair managed to stay on topic for the half an hour they had their breakfast and they succeeded in making a rough outline on what needs to be done for the trip and for the party. The conversation flowed smoothly on which charms should be used for the Halloween decorations and they were unanimous about using portkeys for transporting the students for the trip. Malfoy was more polite than usual and Hermione was as polite as usual and she even forgot who she was talking with for a moment.

As they had the same class next, they continued their discussion after saying goodbye to Dobby. Malfoy made smart observations about the plans and Hermione was happy that he agreed going out of the country for the trip was out of question. It would be nice to see the world, but when you have all Hogwarts' sixth and seventh years to look after, it was much safer to not go all too far.

"I would have loved to visit some Nordic countries, though. I've read that their laws are much more permissive towards magical creatures than ours," Hermione mused.

"We could go anytime you wish, you did promise to go on a date with me anyway," Malfoy said with a charming smile. Hermione stopped on her tracks.

"WHAT?"

"The bet, remember? If I became the head boy you promised you would go on a date with me." Malfoy did not look like he was joking. He even stepped a bit closer to her. Hermione's eyes were wide and her fight of flight instincts tried to kick in.

"I didn't do-" she started, but shut her mouth when the realisation hit her. It was possible that this timeline's Hermione had made such a bet. She could not know, and when she thought about it, it was not completely out of character for her. "Never mind..."

"You don't actually remember?" Draco said sounding a bit hurt. His eyes shone in the magical light of the corridor but his face was blank until he frowned. "I have proof, you know? We did make the deal on paper."

"Could I see that?" Hermione was torn. On one hand Malfoy was an enemy, but on the other, he did seem genuinely devastated about her not remembering she promised to go on a date with her. But she did not know the facts of this world...

"Just a moment," Malfoy mumbled as he dug through his bag. His hand sunk so deep in it that Hermione was sure it was enchanted in a similar manner she had enchanted her beaded bag, which reminded her that she had not found that item among her belongings. Her regular back had been charmed feather light whether it contained anything or not, though.

Finally his hand emerged from the bag with a roll of parchment. She handed it to Hermione.

13th January 1997  
A bet between Ms. Hermione Jean Granger and Mr. Draco Lucius Malfoy:  
If Mr. Draco Lucius Malfoy becomes the head boy of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in year 1997, Hermione Jean Granger is obligated to go on a date with him.  
If Mr. Draco Lucius Malfoy does not become the head boy of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in year 1997, Draco Lucius Malfoy is obligated to pay for the costs of Free House Elves -campaign Hermione Jean Granger arranges in year 1998.  
The definitions of "date," "Free House Elves -campaign" and paying for the costs of it, are attached to this document as appendices.

The ink used for the signatures looked like dried blood. Hermione attempted to leaf through the parchment and sure enough it revealed the appendices. The requirements for the date were that they accompanied each other for at least two hours without communicating with anyone else, except possibly for paying or ordering services like food or amusement, in a place of Malfoy's choosing. The requirements for Hermione's campaign were much more complex. She would not have wanted to do the campaign at all anymore anyway, but had Malfoy failed to become the head boy, she would have had to do it so that he could have filled his end of the contract. It was a magically binding contract, and she had no idea what sort of punishment they had decided on failing to comply.

"A-alright," Hermione finally said after reading the documents twice. She handed them back to smiling Malfoy and she awkwardly smiled back.

"So, that's decided, then. We'll go on a date in the Nordic countries..." Draco began, sounding confident, but that confidence faltered as he continued. "I mean, if you'd really like to go there? Where in there would be best?"

"Uh..." Hermione tried to think. What was with the boy? Did he really have that big a crush on her, or, this timeline's Hermione? "The contract said that you have to decide where we spend our date?"

"I want to have a date you also like, so I need to know your opinion," Draco Malfoy smirked. Hermione looked away just to have her chin turned back by a gentle hand. "Look at me."

And Hermione looked. The light haired boy was looking down at her with a soft expression. His lips were slightly curved upwards and his pale eyebrows were wrinkled hesitantly. She could hear and feel her own heartbeat. His young, misty grey, eyes were wide open. He looked innocent. In the war Hermione had killed people he probably knew. She looked down while he still held her chin carefully. As far as Hermione knew, the boy had not killed anyone even in her own timeline despite joining the Death Eaters. Dumbledore would have been his first and only kill.

"Do you still hate me?"

Hermione's eyes snapped back to his at his hurt words. The definition of his brows had gotten stronger. His lips were not upturned anymore. The look in his eyes was pleading. Hermione sighed.

"Look, Malfoy," Hermione started and stepped back hesitantly. "I don't think I hate you anymore. But- I can't just suddenly jump out of joy when I hear I have to go on a date with you."

Malfoy looked down at his hand that had held Hermione's chin. She could not read his expression from this angle. She drew her arms to her chest and crossed them before sneezing again. He chuckled a little keeping his head down and Hermione wiped her nose with the handkerchief he had given her. He clenched his fist and lifted his head and his expression was determined.

"Alright, but I'll make sure you enjoy the date. On Malfoy's honour," he told her, looking fearlessly straight in her eyes. His eyes sparkled more than they had just a moment ago. Was that moisture?

"We should go to class..." Hermione reminded him avoiding his gaze. He pulled a pocket watch out of his robes. Wizards sure did not seem to be very up to date.

"We're already late," Malfoy said and Hermione's face fell. "Maybe we should just skip class and go on the date right away!"

"No," Hermione said sternly and started walking fast towards the classroom. Malfoy quickly caught up with her.

"I was just joking!"

* * *

Next chapter coming up very soon, as I explained at the beginning.


	5. CH5: Worries and contemplation

Since the excuse of having had Head student duties was accepted by the professor, Hermione spent rest of the Thursday vehemently avoiding talking to anyone. She did not rise to the bait when Colin took pictures of her with his camera. She only said "hello" and "I have to go" to Luna, and to Harry and Ron she only told she was going to the library. She actually did sit in a secluded corner of the library most of the time between lessons and after them. She began making a list of the things that worried her to solve them.

The first thing was, of course, that how had she come here and now. Beside that list point she arranged words to describe any explanations she came up. She knew she probably would not be able to come up with a right answer that way, but this helped her clear her mind of the thoughts. It was possible that this world was all in her head, and if that was the case, it was also possible that she could not find conclusive proof of that, so she did not want to think about that option and instead wrote it down. It was possible that her memories were fake and this was actually her original world, but that would mean that she must have been charmed or cursed in some way, and it was possible to find evidence about that. She underlined this worry thrice. It was also possible that she, or her consciousness, had actually traveled interdimensionally. If she was not cursed in this timeline, that could be the case. In the end she decided that the first thing to solve this first worry she should start from finding out whether or not she had been cursed in this world. For that she would need to gather information about likely curses. She also needed to get her manga back.

Before jotting down the second worry of hers, which was how to handle not remembering how this Hermione had gotten to this point, she blew her nose absent-mindedly. She had used to keep a diary in her past, but she had mostly dropped the habit during the war due to not having time to just herself regularly and in the fear of the diary getting in the wrong hands. She had regularly kept a diary in her timeline at school, though, but she had had a habit of hiding it in different places, and now that she lived on the top of the Gryffindor tower in the head girl's quarters, she did not the have familiar hiding places for it. She underlined "find my diary" also thrice.

Her third worry was saving the wizarding world. She did not know whether or not this timeline was similar in regards to Voldemort and his horcruxes. It appeared that the world had been diverged somewhere around Hermione's sixth year at Hogwarts, although she could not yet be sure about that. But the evidence this far pointed in the direction of Voldemort still having Harry horcrux, and Hermione did not find it very likely that the Dark Lord was dead yet. On the contrary, like Ronald had pointed out, Professor Redlid was quite voldemortlike. But if he was in the position of doing evil deeds very much, he would hardly be here at Hogwarts under Dumbledore's nose. The old wizard would know. Maybe "approach Professor Dumbledore"? She underlined the point tentatively.

After those worrypoints Hermione wrote down "relationships." School did not seem to be a problem to her at all, and her head girl studies depended on human relationships. Besides, her friends and acquaintances had been one of the main reasons her thoughts had gone rather circular. From the beginning people seemed to have tried to eat up all her time and she had not had much time for her research. Even that voldemortlike teacher had gotten in its way rather flashily.

She started from Malfoy, since he had been the most recent tormentor of hers. The boy appeared to be smitten with this timeline's Hermione and she would have to go on a date with him. She did not like the idea at all. She had not liked the boy before, she had hated him, and he seemed all too young and innocent for her this time... and besides, he had not seemed to change his habit of ganging up on others with other slytherins. Even if his closeness made her heart race, it would not be right. He might even have fallen in love with a completely different Hermione. And if the boy was just a very good actor and was scheming something, going on a date was even worse idea. But she could not help going. The contract was magically binding. She had felt it.

Ronald was another difficult suitor. He did seem to be as interested in her in this timeline as in the previous one, but from what she had heard, he was dating Lavender Brown and it did not seem like Hermione had been dating him. She loved Ron, but after the war she had found out that she did not actually want a physical relationship with the boy. She might have mixed friendly love with romantic love, or maybe she only had romantic love towards him instead of sexual attraction? She did not know, and she could not find out here. This Ron was a younger version of the Ron that had actually wanted to be in a relationship with her, and he had not been through all the things her timeline's Ron had been with her. It would be just wrong to use the boy, even if she came to miss her Ron.

Hermione could not count Harry in the suitor problem. At the beginning when she appeared here, he had come closer to her than usual, but that had not happened again and he seemed to be happily in relationship with Ginny. Even if the closeness after the porridge incident meant something, she would not accept Harry's advances and she definitely would not make advances towards him herself. Ginny was a dear friend of hers, even if it was the younger version of her here.

Ginny was another problem by herself. She seemed to be completely focused on quidditch, but she also was her closest friend who actually seemed to know whenever there was something wrong with her just by glance. They had in the past shared their future plans and worries with each other, and, of course, had some talk about boys too. Ginny was the friend she usually went to whenever she was overly stressed about school or wanted to talk about her crush or anything. But she did not know whether she could do something like that with this timeline's Ginny. She would not understand quite everything, and there would be a terrible amount of things to explain if she ended up talking with her properly. Ginny was likely to approach her at some point. Hermione decided that she would not tell her anything for now and wait until she knew more herself.

Neville did not seem like a problem. Instead he was happy to chat with her about interesting ideas and helped her get her mind off other things. Maybe she would have to try talking with him more. Luna had approached her today, and it had been a while since she had really talked with her, even in her own timeline, so she wanted to make sure she would say hi to her and underlined "Luna".

Colin was an irritation. It sure had, probably, not been his fault that he landed face first on her butt, but the way the boy acted after that... He had apologised on the spot, but today he had been following her around, until Madam Pince had stopped him from entering the library again. She would probably have to give him an earful about manners next time he did something like that. Hermione sighed.

She was still a bit weirded out about having told her story to Professor Snape. The man's behaviour in the detention had been nothing like what she had expected, and she was actually somewhat grateful for him hearing her out. She now had at least someone who knew about her trouble, and he did not seem to want to torment her for it. Probably. He had not even deducted any points from her during their discussion. But maybe the Professor had some ulterior motives, like reporting it back to Voldemort? Not likely, it was not something that should interest the Dark Lord. Maybe reporting to Dumbledore? Well, he probably wanted to know what was going on with his students. Professor Snape had seemed eager to discuss her troubles again soon, but she had no idea when that would be. Maybe it was okay to discuss them with him? She might not even have a choice in the matter. Maybe he would even keep his promise to not tell anything to anyone. Too bad she could not demand an unbreakable vow for that.

Professor Redlid still had her manga. She underlined thrice that she should get it from him. But how to do that? The man was irritating. It was as if he was just teasing her. She did not trust him, especially if he was Voldemort, to teach him any mind altering spells, like translation spells, and she did not want to spend any more time with him than necessary, so she could not accept the offer of him teaching her Japanese. She should probably learn the language or at least the spell by herself and soon, so that the man would not have an excuse to lure her into his lair. She underlined "learn Japanese" thrice.

After all this pondering and writing, Hermione's mind felt much clearer and her nose was not nearly as runny as it had been in the morning. She only had to take the magically self cleansing handkerchief out about once an hour anymore. She started gathering books for her research about curses, dimensions, and languages. She found plenty of books about curses and some about dimensions, but to her great dismay all the books on language spells were taken, and so were the only two books about Japanese language specifically. Hermione marched to Madam Pince to ask who had loaned them as an ominous feeling build up inside her.

"It was Professor Redlid. Oh, I think he left a message specifically for you, Miss Granger, let me find it..." Madam Pince told her and went through some papers until she found what she was looking for. "This is what it was: 'Come see me if you want to learn Japanese.'"

Hermione thanked the librarian with gritted teeth. This proved her thought about the Professor teasing her on purpose. She would have marched to his office right away, but her grumbling stomach stopped her. It was indeed time for dinner, and this body still required lots of food. She debated herself about whether to ignore her stomach or not, but Madam Pince ended up shooing her towards the Great Hall and she obediently began walking there.

"Hermione! Wait!" Hermione had not quite reached the doors of the Great Hall when the ethereal voice of the familiar ravenclaw called out to her. Despite her annoyed state, she stopped and turned around to wait for the red faced girl catch up with her.

"Luna, is something wrong?" Hermione asked trying to make herself sound appropriately concerned while forcing her own jaw less tight. She did not have time for nargles or whatever right now. She needed to get some food and to find that annoying Professor.

"I'm, sorry," Luna Lovegood panted and folded over to catch her breath. "It's just that I noticed a lot of micidae gathering around you..."

Hermione gave her a stern look. This was exactly what she did not want to hear, but she had learned that sometimes it was good to give the girl the benefit of doubt before jumping to conclusions.

"I'm sorry," Luna repeated and the curve of her eyebrows told Hermione that she was sincere, not that Luna usually was not. "I really wanted to give you something."

Luna dug through her pockets and handed Hermione something. It felt still warm in her hand, coming straight out of a pocket that had been close to the other girl's body. Hermione lifted the small talisman closer to her face to see it better. It was round, made of some sort of stone, and it had a spiral carving on both sides that went from the edges to the center, and there was a short blue thread attached to it.

"It's an Amphivena Tail. It should protect you from..." Luna started and stopped before continuing. "I just hope you'll keep it. I worry about you."

"Thank you," Hermione said curtly before quickly turning away to continue her stride and pocketing the trinket. She had gotten used to the girl over the years and on a good day she could just shrug off her supersticious nonsense, but she still often could not keep her opinions to herself. She did not want to upset Luna, since she was a nice person and a dear friend.

The ravenclaw caught up with her and continued walking on her side, but did not say anything. She was still a bit out of breath and their pace did not help, so Hermione slowed down a bit. She did not mind her company as long as she did not pester her about irrational things. They arrived at the Great Hall in peace and Luna followed Hermione to the Gryffindor table.

Hermione sat next to Harry and Luna sat next to her. Harry was pushing his food around on the plate, while Ginny instructed a few first or second years on the rules of quidditch. Ron was being fed by Lavender, which was a nice change for his typical eating habits, even if he did not look like he particularly enjoyed it. Luna struck a conversation about unicorns with Neville and Hermione started gathering food on her plate.

The kidney pie really hit the spot and Hermione started feeling somewhat content. The encounter with Luna had already calmed her down a little bit, and she began wondering was it really necessary to face Professor Redlid about something so petty. With taking all those books he could not have any other purpose than riling her up, and she did not think she would want to give the infuriating man the satisfaction of doing as he wished. She could wait him out... Or she could order some books from Flourish and Blotts. There were many other options than using the library books right now to learn a translation spell, even if all the other options were more troublesome. She sighed and gulped some water.

Harry next to her was sitting stiffly and had not eaten at all while Hermione could observe him. His expression was strange. His face was downcast, as if looking at his plate, and his eyes were wide, but looked like they did not see anything, but it was not so dramatic that Hermione would have suspected him being cursed or Voldemort taking over him or anything like that. However, this was not typical for him. She put a hand on his forehead to make sure he did not have a fever.

At the touch of her hand, Harry jumped and gasped, making all the friends around him look at him. As nothing seemed out of order, Ginny patted his back and returned to her discussion, and others turned back to what they were doing also. But Harry looked at Hermione like he had seen a ghost, only he had not gone pale, but red.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked him worriedly. His reaction did not make sense.

"Yeah," Harry mumbled, turned back to his plate, and forcefully pushed a piece of kidney pie in his mouth. Hermione looked around. Everyone close to them were engaged in conversations with each other. The students farther away did not pay attention to them, except Malfoy, whose eyes Hermione caught before he pretended not having even looked her way. Most of the teachers were either talking or enjoying their meal properly, but she caught Professor Redlid curving an eyebrow at her mockingly and Professor Snape lifted his eyes from his meal to stare right in her eyes meaningfully as soon as her gaze swept over him. Hermione shook her head uncomprehendingly.

"Somehow I doubt that, Harry," Hermione said quietly.

"Are you..." Harry lowered his voice so that only Hermione could hear. "Are you dating Malfoy?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Hermione lowered her voice to a vehement whisper and leaned a bit towards Harry. She hoped this did not mean that this timeline's Hermione actually had had some sort of relationship with Malfoy or done something that made others think that...

"He gave me something and said it was for you," he mumbled back, barely daring to glance at her eyes.

"What?"

"It was a flower, Hermione," Harry whispered and his eyes looked haunted when he now properly looked Hermione in the eyes. "It was just a regular flower. I almost killed him last year, and then today he just came up to me and gave me a flower... And then he says it's for you? What am I to make of that?"

"What did you do?"

"I gave it back to him. He laughed at me, but I didn't hex him or anything. Are you dating him or not?" Harry's voice broke and Hermione glanced around again, but nobody close enough to possibly hear looked like they were following their conversation. She had not meant to ask about the flower, actually, but she let it drop, for now.

"No, I'm not," Hermione told him. "He does seem to have taken a fancy on me, though. I do wonder how."

At that moment Hermione found herself engulfed by the boy who lived's arms. He hugged her tightly, but let go as quickly as he had grabbed her. He smiled at her awkwardly, relief clear on his face. They turned away from each other and pretended nothing had happened. Looking over the room Hermione noticed that Malfoy's face had gone sour and he all too obviously had turned away from looking at them. Hermione would not have accepted the flower anyway.

* * *

Next chapter will be up in about two weeks. New university semester beginning things will take up my time at least this and next week.


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